Andrew Frye, 6, Murdered By His 11-Year-Old Brother in Indiana

UPDATE: The 11-year-old brother who shot young Andrew Frye had a history of threatening his younger brother and sister with knives and a gun when they wouldn’t do what he wanted. A neighbor says the boy had grown angry from bullying at school. See update after the jump…

Amanda Vandagrifft’s 11-year-old son had a habit of threatening her young children with knives and a gun when she was away

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The 911 call came in to Martinsville, Indiana police at 6:15 p.m. A
6-year-old boy had been shot. Police arrived to find Andrew Frye in a
bedroom with a gunshot wound to his head. He was taken to a hospital in
Indianapolis, but died two hours later.

At first, detectives believed the shooting was accidental. The only other person home at the time was Andrew’s 11-year-old brother. But the more they probed, the more it looked like a case of pre-teen homicide.

It now seems that Andrew had been shot perhaps hours before the 911 call from his brother was made. The older boy, who has yet to be named, was subsequently charged with murder and criminal recklessness.

Police are also examining whether to charge the boys’ mother and her boyfriend with neglect. Neither of them were home at the time.

So far, the cops are releasing few other details in the case. But there is a unique aspect to Indiana law, which has among the nation’s lowest threshold’s to charge kids with homicide. Anyone over the age of 10 can be tried as an adult.

According to police, the 11-year-old brother was arguing with Andrew the night of the murder. The older boy wanted Andrew to clean his room, and Andrew wasn’t responding up to his satisfaction.

In the past, the 11-year-old had threatened Andrew and his 9-year-old sister with guns and knives when they didn’t do what he wanted. He’d show his younger siblings his parents’ gun, saying he knew how to load it. He’d also held knives to their throats.

But on this day, he carried through with his threats. He went to his parents room, loaded the rifle himself, then went to Andrew’s bedroom. That’s where he shot his younger brother right between the eyes.

11-year-old neighbor Anastazia Watson says her friend began to change after he was constantly bullied at Poston Road Elementary. The kids there unmercifully taunted him, and that caused the boy to take his anger out on his younger siblings.

He’d been suspended from school this past year, and his parents were reportedly seeking counseling for him.

But they have problems of their own now. Andrew’s mother Amanda Vandagrifft has been charged with neglect of a
dependent resulting in death. Her boyfriend Matthew Boulden has been charged with neglect of a dependent.

The 11-year-old boy has been charged as a juvenile with murder and reckless homicide.